Home, I Have No Home

"Nightmare of Ecstasy" Book Review!

I think I remember the first time I became aware of the work of Ed Wood. It was listening to sound clips of his films at my friend Dave's house. They were so quirky, so bad! It really made one wonder, where did this come from? How could these get made? Soon after, I saw "Ed Wood", Tim Burton's brilliant and loving take on the man, his friends and his work. I was inspired by this guy who could put so much talent and decent ideas on the screen, albeit not with great results.

It was only recently that I picked up a copy of the book, "Nightmare of Ecstasy" by Rudolph Grey, a sort of oral history on which the movie was based. I had been a little wary to know the truth of Ed Wood, that it might prove much sadder and weirder than the movie. It was, but I'm glad I read it. It turns out, the real life of Ed and his friends were not too far off at all from the movie! Ed was apparently quite a charmer, some might say a manipulator, but somehow he was fun to be around and fairly convincing when telling people his ideas, even after making movies that were not, shall we say, very mainstream.

So why the interest in one of the worst directors of all time? Well, why not? I think it's very refreshing to read about someone who didn't quite "make it" but still had a style and career in doing what he liked. Not everyone who wants to make movies is going to be successful, but they are still people with dreams and aspirations.

Some incredible revelations from the book:

--Many scenes and facts in the movie were taken right from the book: Bela confronting Ed with a gun, Bela reciting the "Home, I have no home" lines from "Bride of the Monster" in front of a group of strangers on the street to great results, Ed and Bela watching "White Zombie" on TV as presented by Vampira. It's all there!

--"Citizen Kane" star Joseph Cotten came and gave pointers to Ed and the cast of "The Casual Company", a stageplay Ed put on, seen early in the film, "Ed Wood".

--For the most part, Ed really did enjoy his own movies after they were made, and would talk about them in good regard and show them to people. But I thought it was interesting that there was this one part where Ed is talking about making "Plan 9" and he calls the part in "Plan 9" where Bela dies off-screen "phony". So it would seem Ed wasn't completely oblivious to bad moviemaking.